1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to trays for holding a forest of bottles filled with a fruit juice drink, coffee, sports drink, black tea, green tea, oolong, and so forth. More particularly, this invention relates to trays adapted to be used in a manner such that one tray is put on a forest of bottles held on another tray, whereby the bottles can be stacked in layers.
2. Description of the Related Art
The trays of this type or the so-called bottle trays are disclosed, for example, in Published Unexamined Japanese Utility Model Application Nos. 62-48913 and 62-63075. Each of these conventional bottle trays has a number of recesses arranged in the form of a matrix on the upper surface thereof. Each of the recesses constitutes a bottom socket in which the bottom portion of a bottle is to be inserted. Also, a number of recesses are arranged on the lower surface of the bottle tray in the same manner as the bottom sockets, that is, so as to be coaxial with their corresponding bottom sockets. Each of these cap sockets, which is smaller than each bottom socket, constitutes a cap socket in which a cap fitted on each bottle is to be inserted.
Thus, if the bottle tray is placed with its bottom sockets upward, a number of bottles can be held standing together on the tray in a manner such that the respective bottom portions of the bottles are fitted individually in the bottom sockets. If all of the trademarks pasted or printed on the peripheral surfaces of the outermost bottles are exposed to the outside, consumers can easily identify the contents of the bottles through visual observation of the trademarks. Thus, the bottles on the bottle tray can be utilized as articles on display in a store. The exhibitive effect of these bottles is greater than the effect produced when a number of bottles are contained in a bottle case for display.
If another bottle tray is put on the forest of bottles so that caps on the individual bottles standing upright on one bottle tray are inserted in their corresponding cap sockets of the another tray, another forest of bottles can be held on the another tray. Thus, by using these bottle trays, a plurality of forests of bottles can be stacked in layers. When the bottles are stacked in this manner, the bottom portion of one of the bottles is fitted in its corresponding bottom socket of a bottle tray, and the top or cap portion of the bottle is fitted in its corresponding cap socket of another bottle tray which directly overlies the forest of the bottles on one tray. Thus, the forest of bottles on each level are held between each two bottle trays, so that the bottles can be securely prevented from sliding horizontally. As a result, the bottles can be stacked in layers with reliability. If the multilayer stacking of the bottles can be effected with stability in this manner, spaces for the storage of the bottles in stores or warehouses or in transportation means can be reduced.
In general, the contours of the bottles of this type vary considerably for each of discrimination, despite the equality in capacity. In other words, the contours of the bottles depend on the unique designs of products which are intended to heighten the consumers' desire to buy the products. Even though the bottles of this type have the same capacity, therefore, their respective bottom portions are naturally different in cross-sectional configuration, due to the variation in contours. The cross section of the bottom portions may, for example, be circular, elliptic, square, or polygonal.
However, each bottom socket of the bottle trays disclosed in the aforementioned applications has a configuration which agrees with the cross-sectional configuration of the bottom portion of a specific bottle to be inserted into the bottom socket. Thus, the bottom socket has a simple configuration selected among circular, elliptic, square, and polygonal configurations. If the configuration of the bottom socket of the conventional bottle trays is different from the cross-sectional configuration of the bottom portion of a bottle, therefore, the bottom portion cannot be inserted into the bottom socket. Accordingly, in the conventional case, it is necessary to provide various bottle trays whose bottom sockets are different in configuration, depending on the difference in cross-sectional configuration between the respective bottom portions of the various bottles.
In many cases, moreover, the mouth portions of these bottles or the caps thereon are different in outside diameter, due to the aforesaid variation in contours. In the conventional arrangement, therefore, various bottle trays whose cap sockets have different diameters must be provided also depending the difference in outside diameter between the caps on the various bottles.
In these circumstances, the conventional bottle trays are exclusive-use trays which are applicable only to a specific type of bottles.